Microsoft will not sell facial recognition to the police
as it says Microsoft will not sell facial recognition technology to US police departments. The warning came through an interview with the company’s legal director and president, Brad Smith, who spoke to the Washington Post.
According to Smith, brand principles prevent the platform from being commercialized at the moment. It will only consider changing the position when Congress establishes some type of regulation for use based on respect for human rights, which does not depend only on technology companies. “I think this is a moment in time when we are invited to listen more, learn more and, more importantly, do more”, says the executive.
In addition, the company will analyze other factors that may or may not allow the commercialization of this service in other scenarios, without specifying what these criteria would be. The main criticism that the sector receives is the possibility of false positives, either due to bias in the algorithm or incorrect use by the forces of law.
Following examples
In addition to Microsoft, two other companies previously confirmed the suspension of licensing of facial recognition technologies to governments and police forces. The action was taken after protests in the United States, prompted by the assassination of George Floyd in late May this year during a police approach.
The first to take action was IBM, which has completely suspended the development of this technology. The Amazon, on the other hand, froze investments in facial recognition for a year.
👇 More in NUpgrade
